Equipment for the transportation of goods in railway systems



April 30, 1963 P. v. RbNNsATER ETA]. 3,087,

EQUIPIIEIN FOR THE TRANSPORTATION 0F GOGDS IN RAILWAY SYSTEMS Filed 06 14, 1.959

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United States Patent Otiice 3,087,635 Patented Apr. 30, 1963 3,087,635 EQUIPMENT FOR THE TRANSPORTATION F GOODS IN RAILWAY SYSTEMS Per Valdemar Riinnsiiter, Lyckselevagen 8, Vallingby, Sweden, and Anders Georg Storm, Angkarrsgaten 12, Solna, Sweden Filed Oct. 14, 1959, Ser. No. 846,325 Claims priority, application Sweden Oct. 15, M58 1 Claim. (Cl. 214-75) The present invention relates to a trolley for the loading and transportation of goods in a railway system. Particularly, the present invention relates to equipment for the transportation of goods in railway systems from places near a railway track from where the goods are to be removed and loaded on railway cars for further transportation to distant places. The invention is of special advantage in connection with the transportation of replaced rails of a railway track. Some units of the equipment may, however, be used in other connections.

One object of the invention is to provide means whereby the transportation of goods from places near a railway track to a place of deposit near a clear track and from such place of deposit to an ordinary railway car may be carried out with a minimum of cost and labor.

Another object of the invention is to make it possible to maintain full employment of the workers occupied with the transportation of replaced rails even during times when the main railway track is not accessible owing to the ordinary traffic thereon.

It is also an object of the invention to provide means for the purpose referred to which do not require great tractive forces, for instance ordinary locomotives, but merely light trucks or the like for the transportation of the goods from said places near the railway track.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.

According to the invention there is provided equipment for the transportation of goods in railway systems from places near a railway track, said equipment comprising trolleys provided with load lifting means arranged in such manner that the goods may be loaded on the trolleys from either side of the railway track, auxiliary tracks between a railway track and a place of deposit of said goods and small load lifting trucks movable on each of said auxiliary tracks for the transfer of goods between said trolleys and the place of deposit or from the place of deposit to a railway car.

A further feature of the invention is that the trolley used in said equipment is provided with a T-structure or the like at right angles to the railway track, said T-structure being provided with load lifting means including a carriage which is movable along the upper horizontal limb of the T-structure from one end of the same to the other, the lifting of the load being carried out by means of a combination of a wire, wire wheels and a hydraulic driving device.

Said horizontal limb of the T-structure is, according to the invention, provided with guide surfaces supporting said carriage of the load lifting means, the guide surfaces being arranged so as to slope inwardly from the outer ends of the horizontal limb or beam to the central point of said limb. The reason for this arrangement will be described in more detail in the following description.

According to the invention, the equipment may also include small lifting trucks or carriages supported by said auxiliary rails which are placed substantially at right angles to the railway track between the trolleys or railway cars to be unloaded and loaded, respectively, and a storage place or place of deposit for the transported goods near a free track at a railway station. Said small lifting trucks may be provided with a load lifting surface which is raised by means of a manually operated hydraulic device.

The invention will hereinbelow be more fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 of the drawings shows schematically and in plan view a railway track and two trolleys with lifting means according to one embodiment of the invention. FIG. 2 shows a free track at a railway station and a place of deposit of the transported goods in plan view. FIG. 3 is a side view of the arrangement according to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 4 shows a railway car and means for loading goods from the place of deposit. FIG. 5 is a side view of the arrangement according to FIG. 4. FIG. 6 is a front view of a trolley with load lifting means according to one embodiment of the invention and FIG. 7 is a side view showing schematically an embodiment of a small, manually operated lifting truck for the transportation of goods between the deposit and the trolleys or the railway car.

In FIG. 1 reference numeral 1 designates an ordinary railway track subjected to an ordinary traffic load. 2 designates the good to be transported, for instance rails, lying near the railway track. 4 designates two trolleys with means for lifting and loading the goods 2 on the trolleys. Said trolleys will be more fully described with reference to FIG. 6.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show the trolleys in a position opposite a place of deposit of the rails 2 constituted by rails or beams 7 at right angles to the railway track which is a free track at a railway station. Auxiliary tracks 5 and 6 are arranged between the place of deposit and the trolleys :at right angles to the railway track. For unloading of the rails 2 from the trolleys and for transportation of some to the deposit two small, manually operated trucks 8 are provided which will be more fully described in connection with FIG. 7.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show a railway car 3 opposite the place of deposit 7 of the rails 2. Ramps 10 ascend from the car 3 to the deposit 7 and small load carrying trucks 12 similar to the trucks 8 are supported by carriages or sledges 11 having a horizontal top surface supporting the trucks 12, said carriages or sledges being movable along the ramps 10. Beams 13 are placed on the car 3 for supporting the rails 2 to be loaded on the car.

The trolley 4, according to FIG. 6, has a frame 16 with a relatively small dimension in the direction of the railway track 1 and is supported from the railway track by means of rail wheels 27 and 28, two such wheels being provided one close behind the other for supporting the trolley from each rail. The trolley is provided with a load supporting bar 24 at right angles to the railway track 1, said bar constituting load supporting surfaces 24' and 24" on each side of a pillar structure 23 arranged centrally on the trolley. Said pillar structure supports a traverse beam 14 extending horizontally at right angles to the railway track 1, thus forming a T-structure together with the pillar 23. The beam 14 is provided with guide surfaces 25 supporting a wire wheel carriage 15, the supporting wheels 40 of the latter bearing against said guide surface 25 which is constituted by lateral flanges at the underside of the beam 14 extending from one end of the beam to the other. By means of wire wheels 42 of the carriage 15 and the wire 41, a load gripping or holding device 18 is suspended which device may be lifted or lowered by taking in or giving out wire. This operation is controlled by means of a hydraulic cylinder 19 on the top of the beam 14, said cylinder being connected to a wire wheel 20, the wire itself running from a fixed point 21 at the right end of the beam 14 via wire wheels 20, 29, 42 and the wire wheel of the load gripping means 18 to a fixed point 17 at the left end of the beam 14. Within the pillar structure 23 is mounted a small combustion engine with a hydraulic pump (not shown) by means of which pressure fluid may be obtained for the operation of the hydraulic cylinder 19. This operation is controlled by means of manually operated levers 22 at each end of the beam 14. The movement of the carriage 15, when the lifted load shall be moved to a desired place on the load supporting surfaces 24' and 24, is carried out manually. In order to facilitate this movement the guides 25 which support the carriage 15 are arranged so as to slope somewhat inwardly and downwardly from the ends of the beam 14 to a central point thereof at the pillar structure 23. The slope angle may, for instance, amount to ll5. By virtue of this slope, the gravity of the load assists in moving the carriage with the lifted load to the desired place on the beam 24. In fact, this movement takes place automatically as soon as the load is lifted above obstacles, e.g. previous loads, which prevent the movement inwardly of the lifted goods. This effect is very useful in practice. A further advantage of the sloping support surfaces is the fact that when the trolleys 4 are placed in a curve of the railway track 1, the surfaces 25 will not slope outwardly which would make it difficult to move the carriage 15 with its load inwardly to the load supporting beam surfaces 24' and 24" respectively.

FIG. 7 is a simplified view of the small lifting trucks 8 and 12 shown schematically in FIGS. 1-5. The truck has a frame supported from the auxiliary rails 5 and 6 by means of double-collar rail wheels 38. A load lifting surface 31 of the truck is connected to the frame 30 by means of supporting links 32 and 33 and a hydraulic device 34 with a piston rod 35 operating against a fork 36 connected to the lifting surface 31 llS used for raising and lowering the surface 31 with its load. The hydraulic device 34 is manually operated by means of the lever 37 in a manner well known per se in the art.

The equipment according to the invention is used in the following manner. The goods to be handled are shown as rails, e.g. rails which have been replaced by new rails on a railway track and are left behind at the side of the railway track.

In FIG. 1 is shown how two trolleys 4 have been moved, for instance by means of a light truck tractor, motor trolley etc., from a railway station and placed opposite to the rail 2 to be picked up and transported to a rail deposit near a free track at a railway station, as shown in FIG. 2. The rails are lifted by the gripping or hold ing device 18 of the trolley 4, shown in FIG. 6, and loaded on the trolleys. After loading a sufficient number of rails 2, the trolleys are moved back to the station by means of said light tractor and placed opposite the place of deposit 7, FIG. 2, where the auxiliary tracks 6, supporting small lifting trucks 8, have been placed at right angles to the railway track 1. Additional detachable tracks 5 are connected to the tracks 6 and the small trucks 8 are moved in under the rail load of the trolleys which load is then lifted by manual operation of the lifting truck 8, whereafter the trucks 8 with their load are moved back on the tracks 5 and 6 to the place of deposit 7 where the load is placed.

At times when no rails can be picked up along the main railway track 1 owing to the normal traffic on the track 1, the workers in charge of the handling of the rails can be occupied with loading rails 2 from the place of deposit 7 at the railway station to an ordinary railway car for further transportation to distant places, this loading being illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. The railway car 3 is placed opposite the place of deposit 7 and ramps 10 are mounted between load supporting beams 13 of the car 3 and the place of deposit 7. A small carriage or sledge 11 with a horizontal top surface is placed or provided at the lower end of the ramps 10. Said carriage or sledge is driven by means (not shown) whereby the carriage or sledge can be moved along the entire ramp 10 from the lower to the upper end thereof. The trucks 8 are placed under a suitable rail load of the deposit, the load is lifted and moved towards the car 3 until it is situated just above the small trucks 12 which are placed on the horizontal top surface of the carriages or sledges 11 which are then moved upwards on the ramps 10 until their top surfaces are flush with the bottom of the railway car 3 or with truck rails on the bottom of the car. The trucks 12 with the rail load are then moved into the car 3 and the load is placed on the beams 13.

In the above description and in the drawings it has been assumed that two trolleys, two auxiliary tracks and two ramps are sulhcient for the transportation. However several trolleys, tracks and ramps may sometimes be necessary for the transportation of, for instance, very long rails, beams, etc. In such cases the pillar structure 25 with the traverse beam 14 of one or more trolleys may be detachable, so that they can be removed from the trolleys, which in certain cases would facilitate the bandling of the load.

As mentioned in the introduction the invention is not restricted to the handling of replaced rails in railway systems since it may be of use in all cases where a load of lengthy shape is to be taken from a place near a railway track and transported on said track. Further the invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawing, since said embodiment may be modified in direct dependence of the special transportation problems to be solved with the use of the basic principle of the invention.

We claim:

A trolley for the loading and transportation of goods in a railway system comprising a frame having rail wheels for movably supporting it on railway tracks, a narrow pillar structure rigidly secured to the frame at the center thereof, a loading surface for said goods on the frame at each side of the fixed pillar structure, a beam horizontally and rigidly mounted on the top of the pillar structure and arranged transversely of the frame, load lifting means carried by the beam and including a carriage movable along the beam and supported by guide surfaces extending from one end of the beam to the other, a pulley rotatably mounted at one end of the beam, two pulleys rotatably mounted on said carriage and a load lifting cable running over said pulley at one end of the beam and over said pulleys of the carriage and having its one end fixed relative to the beam said load lifting means including a gripping means suspended from the carriage by said cable, the other end of said cable being fixed relative to said beam and hydraulically operating means being provided for tensioning and releasing said cable for raising and lowering the load gripping means, said hydraulic operating means including a hydraulic cylinder mounted on top of the beam and axially aligned therewith, a piston rod workably extending from the cylinder and a pulley connecting the cable to the piston rod.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 611,777 Des Brisay Oct. 4, 1898 678,188 Macbeth July 9, 1901 1,259,093 Harris Mar. 12, 1918 1,744,392 Le Grand et a1 Jan. 21, 1930 2,101,839 Crawford Dec. 14, 1937 2,877,981 McMurry Mar. 17, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 860,670 France Oct. 7, I940 

